Day 187, Thursday December 26th, Boxing Day

Day 187, Thursday December 26^th, Boxing Day

A quiet day today, we clean a bit then head to shore so Ross can run and we visit Joe and Tami who have offered to sell us some gas for our outboard.  Little Harbour location is great as a hop off point to the Eleuthera’s, but not a good spot to stay for a couple days before a passage as there are no supplies.  Everything was damp from yesterdays rain and there is no laundry or even a spot to buy a quart of milk.  Luckily we had supplied up fairly well in Marsh Harbour on the 23^rd so should last until the 29^th when we will stock up in Nassau.

The foundry here is closed again so we cannot get a tour today unfortunately.   At 1:00 we head out of the harbour as it is high tide and we want to get an early start south tomorrow and we can only depart from this harbour at high tide which is early afternoon for the next couple of days.  We anchor out at Lynyard Cay which is about 2 miles away and there are 4 boats at anchor.  Within a couple of hours there are another 7 boats for a total of 11 boats anchoring out waiting to make the passage south the next day.  We are surprised at the number of boats as typically it has been very quiet here.  Ross naps as he has a headache from whacking his head on the doorways.  The doorways are about 5 foot 8 and his 6 foot frame does not always keep track of where it does not fit.  During Ross’s nap we head over to visit Magic Carpet the boat anchored next to us.  We had met the boat in a couple of other anchorages over the last couple of weeks and had talked to the owners when they were in Little Harbour on the 24^th.

Magic Carpet is a 60 year old Sparks and Stephens Wooden Yawl.  The couple cruise the Bahamas and Caribbean with her in the winter and run charters with her in the summer out of Martha’s Vineyard.  She is a beautiful boat who has been kept in orginal conditions by her 6 owners.  We get a tour of her and are impressed by both the boat as well as the work her owners put in to keep her in such great conditions.

We get back to the boat just after Ross got up, have an excellent dinner of Christmas leftovers, a coffee a game of crib and off to bed.

Cheers

Julie and Dawson

Day 186, Wednesday December 25th – Merry Christmas To All

Day 186, Wednesday December 25^th – Merry Christmas To All

Meagre gift exchange

The Stocking "bag"

Well Christmas has arrived.  We are up early as usual, but today it is very windy, rainy and grey.  We have a very small gift exchange.  Ross has gotten us a heat detection gun which has a laser pointer and when pointed at an object takes a temperature reading.  This is a desired object so we can monitor the engine heat.  Ross has a stocking bag of treats and only 1 small gift, a pair of shorts luckily they fits.  Julie fries up some squash seeds, and continues to prep for tonight’s dinner.  Fresh baked bread is the first order of the day and it comes with a few challenges as the oven thermal coupling seems to be sending erroneous signals and the oven will not stay on.  This could pose a problem once it is time to cook the turkey.  Between cooking Julie is taking juggling lessons from Ross.  This started about 4 days ago and she practices intermittently (arms get tired of throwing balls).  Julie achieves up to 12 catches which is a huge improvement over the previous days.  While this is going on, Ross and Dawson go for their Christmas run. 

Ross and Julie heading over to pub for potluck

Potluck at Pete's pub

Conch horn building

Ross blowing on the Conch

At 1:00 we head over to Pete’s pub which is closed for business, but the community is hosting a potluck and we have been invited.  We are taking a pasta salad and a Napa Cabbage salad (no bag of chips).  Upon our arrival we have Christmas eggnog; unfortunately they have rum and bourbon which has way too much bourbon.  We meet many families that have winter homes in the area.  There are probably about 60 people in attendance and the food is excellent.  A family we are sitting with is presented with a conch shell that has been cleaned and modified to be able to “blow” into it and make the conch call.  Ross decides to make one of these when we get back to the boat a couple hours later.

Ross hack saws through the tip of the conch, then drills a hole to let additional air escape.  He is quite successful and we all have a blow on the new instrument.

Ross pouring champagne for dinner

Julie decides to use her pressure cooker for the small boneless turkey and it will only take about 30 minutes to cook so we play some cribbage to while away the early evening awaiting our appetites to return.  We have managed to skype with the Fay Christmas and we have talked with Kevin who is alone for Christmas in Newfoundland which makes us sad.  We pop open a bottle of champagne and toast to our health, and happiness. Dinner is fabulous with Turkey, squash, mashed potatoes, gravy, dressing, fresh baked buns, and pasta salad.  For dessert we munch on a Nassau chocolate rum cake which is yummy. 

Cheers

Julie and Dawson

Day 185 Tuesday December 24

Day 185 Tuesday December 24, Christmas eve day – A Successful Coconut Hunt

We wake up to calm weather at Lynyard Cay.  There is a large fish about 15 pounds under the boat, which Dawson thinks is a grouper which is out of season so Ross cannot try to catch it.  We decide to dinghy the 2 miles back up to Sandy Cay and go for a snorkel as yesterday was too wavy to catch the best part of the reef.

There are still some swells as we approach the reef.  There is one large 8 foot wave that we climb in the dinghy.  It is kind of cool.  The swells are not steep so very manageable.  We tie off to one of the 5 mooring balls that are set up at the reef to prevent damaging the corals with the anchor.  The 3 of us jump in with our snorkel gear and immediately see how excellent this reef is.  There are not as many fish as at Mermaid reef, but the reef itself has a lot more coloured coral.  We also see a turtle, 2 rays, a puffer fish, and many other colourful fish.  Ross dove down and swam with the turtle for a short time.  By 10:15 we are back at the mothership preparing for departure.  Our destination is only 2 miles away, but we want to enter the channel at 11 so as to take advantage of a rising tide that is almost in.  The entrance to Little Harbour our next destination only has 4.5’ at low tide.

Julie and Ross attempt to snorkel murky waters

We get into Little Harbour no problems and are moored by 11:30.  Little Harbour is a neat place that we would recommend to people to visit, it is quite a bit different from the other stops we had made on the Sea of Abaco.  The harbour was 1^st settled by a Canadian Artist who after 15 year of teaching art in the states set sail with his family to get away from the “Rat Race”.  After 2 years of cruising he settled in Little Harbour.  This was in the early 50's.  He was a bronze sculptor, so even built his own foundry in the place so he could do his own castings.  His work is found all over the world with one piece on display in the Vatican.  Ran Johnston the founder of Little Harbour passed away in 1992 but one of his sons carries on his work along with running a beach bar called Pete’s Pub.

Ross with the harvest

Ross and Dawson go for a run in the small village.  Julie starts food preparations for Christmas day.  In the afternoon we all go shore to check out the gallery and foundry.  The gallery was good with a number of nice bronze pieces depicting sea themes.  There were a number of turtle sculptors, we later found out that Peter used to raise turtles to help re-establish them in the harbour.  The foundry was closed so no tour there.  From there we headed to the beach on the Atlantic side to do some snorkelling but the water is too churned up to allow us to see anything.  We make due with a walk on along the beach and then head back to the boat.  On the way back we harvest some coconuts with a new record of 4.  We decide to husk them all that day so set up a coconut dehusking station on the beach of Little Harbour.  We get quite good at it and have all 4 husked in less than 40 mins.  This is quite an improvement from our 1^st coconut back at Turtle Cay.  All of them have an excellent supply of coconut water and coconut meat.

Husking on the beach

stack of husked coconuts

Just before we leave the beach we talk with one of the home owners about the condition of the moorings.  He reports they are in good conditions which is nice to know as high winds are expected on Christmas day.  The follow invites us for the Little Harbour community Pot Luck Christmas dinner the next day.

Locals towing cooler as no room in tender

We head over to Pete’s Pub for dinner and enjoy an excellent meal of fresh seafood, although it was served on plastic plates.  We get our 2^nd invite to the potluck but this one comes with the advice that our contribution to the meal must be more than a bag of chips and a can of corn.  There must be a story there.  Back to the boat for coffee and sending off some hellos and good wishes to those we are missing as we are so far away.

Cheers

Julie and Dawson

Day 184, Monday December 23

Day 184 Monday December 23

Well today Blake leaves so we are in Marsh Harbour to send him off and stock up on supplies.  We are up at 5:30 so that Annie the cabdriver can get him to the airport shortly after 6 for his 7:45 flight to Nassau.  We are all a bit apprehensive as Sky Bahamas did not have Blake registered as a customer on the way here but Blake’s mom Debi has been in touch with them so all should be good.

Ross goes back to sleep for a couple hours while we head in for groceries to try to make Christmas dinner a bit special.  Christmas is pretty low key as most of our friends and family are so far away and there is no snow and next to no shops or places to put things.  Julie is struggling with knowing Kevin will be alone on Christmas. 

Ross reading as we sail along

By 10:00 we are weighing anchor and heading south for Lynyards Cay.  It is a bit of a zigzagging course to miss all the shifting sands so the sails are down, then up, then down, then up, then down again.  After 4 hours we are at our lunch hook spot for some snorkelling.  The swells from the Atlantic are a bit high so Julie stays with the boat as Dawson and Ross head out at Sandy Cay.  They see some large fish, but the best of the coral reef is out of their reach due to the Atlantic swell.

Snorkellers heading to site.

Snorkellers returning from site

We up anchor and move on to our anchorage for the night which is just an old coral reef island called Lynyard Cay where we have protection from the Northeast and east.  The winds are scheduled to calm down as they have been blowing about 15knots for the day.  There are a couple of beaches with sufficient depth near them so we pick one to anchor near and soon are dinghying to shore for the last hour of sunlight.  The beach is nice and there is a small live conch but no big ones.  

We find an old coconut that has some liquid in it and there is a machete on a table so we borrow it and after much hacking we reach the nut.  Unfortunately the milk stinks and the meat has all been absorbed.  Yuck is all thought in unison.  We won’t bother again to open an older one even if it sounds like it is okay.

The Cay is quite narrow so we can walk across to the Atlantic side and access the Sea of Abaco side.  The Atlantic bashes against the shore here with very little beach.  We can hear it from the boat and know it will rock us gently to sleep.

Back on the boat we pull out “Boggle”.  Of course Ross wins with his quick mind finding more words and creating new ones when required.  No surprise there.

We have a late dinner and early bed. Pretty typical in order to utilize the daylight.

Cheers

Julie and Dawson

Day 183, Sunday, December 22

Day 183, Sunday, December 22

Well the boys are hungover and tired today.  In better shape than the iphone though as it is dead.  This is unfortunate as now Blake’s communication system is down for his trip back to Canada.  Today we head to Marsh Harbour as Blake flies out tomorrow for Nassau, then Toronto, then Sudbury. 

We (Dawson and Julie) go over to Nippers to people watch as today is the weekly pig roast and we have heard that it gets busy.  We have a beer and there are actually about 100 people that have come out of the woodwork.  We do not actually have the pig roast special as we have been told it is not so good and for $24 bucks, we prefer to actually get cutlery vs. Styrofoam and plastic.

We have a decent sail over to Marsh Harbour from Guana Cay and arrive early evening before dark.   Since it is Sunday everything is closed except for a couple restaurants.  We head over to Curly tails for Blake’s last supper and then everyone heads to bed early as the alarm clock is set for 5:30 in order for Blake to get dinghied over to catch is cab ride over to the Marsh Harbour airport.

Cheers

Julie and Dawson

Day 182, Saturday, December 21

Day 182, Saturday, December 21

We are moving on today and heading to Guana Cay which is only about 8 miles away.  Head wind so we motor the whole way.  We leave Treasure Cay on high tide as it is shallow in the canal.  The dolphin has not come to visit while we have been here which was disappointing as we Ross and Blake to get a close up view of a dolphin in the wild.  Oh well. 

We decide to dock at Orchid Bay as there are high winds predicted from a direction we won’t get much protection from at anchor.  Orchid Bay is a fairly nice place, but is in receivership.  There are only about 3 boats moored at the 60 slips.  Quite sad.

Garden starting to grow

Blake enjoying the best sand beach ever!

We head over to the Atlantic ocean via Nippers Restaurant and have a beer, go for a swim, toss around a football (well Blake and Ross tossed the ball around).  We last a couple hours and head back to the boat.  A power boat with 3 youths on it was in dock and they were cleaning the conch and lobsters they had caught.  One lobster was quite large.  They had about 8 conch so it was neat to watch him get the animal out.  They said it was a small catch and they were just getting them for their own consumption.  The lobsters they had speared.  There are no claws on the lobsters, it is only the tails that get harvested.  We have been told that all the shark attacks have taken place when spear fisherman don’t get their victims out of the water quick enough so spear fishing does not hold an attraction for us at all.

After dinner, the boys head over to the local bars Nippers, the Shack and Grabbers to see if there is any excitement going on.  They find some kiwi’s to chum with and have an expensive, long drinking evening that resulted in Blake’s iphone getting into the pool with him being thrown in.  When they got back to the boat, they did put the phone in rice, but it did not look very good.

Sorry not many pics.  Blake did have a good one of the conch etc.

Cheers

Julie and Dawson

Day 181, Friday Dec. 20,

Day 181, Friday Dec. 20, Treasure Cay Tour

Today starts out as most other days, beautiful blue skies, and coffee in the cockpit.  After breakfast Dawson heads out to the creek with Blake and Ross and Julie stays on the boat to do the windows on the canvas.

Don't we look cute!

The three guys have a good trip up the creek to the salt water lake fishing all the way.  This is the same trip that Dawson and Julie did about a week before.  We don’t see any of the large fish but spot about a dozen turtles in the lake.  On the way down the creek we spot one of the large rays swimming along.  But no dolphins.

We return to find Julie done her jobs so it is time for some R and R.  After lunch we head over to Coco Beach, which is rated in the top 10 beaches of world, or so we are told by some of the locals.  A quick google search by Blake and Julie does not back this claim up.  It is however a beautiful beach, about 6 km long made up of very fine white sand.  The shore is quite shallow making it an excellent swimming beach.  After the beach we head back to the resort for a dip in the fresh water pool and a shower.

We are back to the boat for dinner and a game of euchre with the boys.  They then head back to the resort in quest of night out.  They are back in less than 2 hours there was not much happening.  Well better luck next time.

Cheers

Julie and Dawson

Day 180, Thursday December 19th

Day 180, Thursday December 19th

Ross fishing underway

Today we are heading to Treasure Cay. We need to get moving in the morning asthe tide is dropping with low tide around 3:00. We need the assistance of some water under the keel to exit Hopetown Harbour and to get into Treasure Cay harbour. We drop the mooring ball by around 9 and have an excellent 4 hour sail. The wind is a bit behind us so it is a pretty flat ride with about 13 knots of wind. We are able to maneuver around all the shallows without tacking.  Ross fishes while underway, however nothing hops on the line.

The boys are not too interested in the sailing part. We call them up as we are coming into port assuming they would be interested, however they are both below sleeping!



The great haircut attempt

Once we get to Treasure Cay, Ross tries to give Dawson a much needed haircut, however the barber razor we have brought does not get enough electrical juice to work, so Julie pulls out the scissors to hack away some of the length.



Julie caught a fish, trying to net sunglasses in background

Ross recovering sunglasses

Julie decides to do some fishing from the boat and catches just a small sucker.  This is one of the ones that tag a ride on sharks and other fish.  It has decided to try to tag along with the sailboat.  It has a suction cup on its head.  While Ross is helping to get the fish off the hook, off course his sunglasses fall into the water so he has to go diving for them.  It is almost dark so he does not have much time.  The days here are about 11 hours of daylight.  It gets dark by 5:30, and the sun rises at about 6:30. 
Soon the days will start getting longer.
 Ross is successful recovering his sunglasses.

Ross and Blake with full moon

We also have been watching for the dolphin, but it is not in the harbour tonight.  We head in to shore for pizza night.  There is a pizza oven at the bar and once a week they cook pizzas and have music.  There is quite a crowd forming and the pizza is good.  They probably had abot 100 people tonight which is the most people we have seen anywhere.  It is a full moon and as we are leaving the moon shines on the pool and the palm trees and it reminds us how lucky we are to be here enjoying the warm weather.

Cheers
Julie and Dawson




Day 179, Wednesday, December 18th

Day 179, Wednesday, December 18th

Julie and Jane Karhi (FedNor employees)

Today we are spending our last day in Hopetown.  Dawson and Ross head to shore for a 5 kms run and Julie heads for coffee over to Rum Rover to say a hello to Jane and the crew.  (I forgot to mention yesterday that last night at Captain Jacks a group of 6 came in and next thing you know Jane Karhi, who I worked with at FedNor is sailing on a catamaran with friends on holiday.  What a hoot of a hello.  It shocked both of us).  We had a good visit over coffee and Julie met her fellow boaters.  Jane and Johnny then came over to our boat to check out our digs.

 The main attraction for the day will be hanging out on the Atlantic ocean.  The boys head over ahead of us, and we kayak in and portage the boats across the 400m penisula to the atlantic side.   We have our snorkel gear also and Ross has brought a fishing rod to do some surf fishing.  We bought some shrimp bait the other day so hopefully we will see some action.

Julie putters around in the kayak.  The tide is going out, so she stays close to shore to make sure she does not go out with the tide.  There is no real danger of that as the wind and waves are blowing onshore.  Julie is looking for fish along the coral reefs using the viewing window in the kayak.  She sees nothing.  Dawson dons the snorkel and says there are lots of fish down there.  Ross finally snags about an 6 inch long reef fish but we decide it is too small to keep.

Fish Ross caught
 

After the Atlantic expedition we head over to the marina resort for a game of bean bag toss.  Dawson and Julie vs. Blake and Ross.  Julie and Dawson take the first game, then Ross and Blake even it up, then Dawson and Julie take the 3rd game, then Ross and Blake even it up, then Julie says she has played enough so the rubber match is still outstanding.  Who knows when we will ever play bean bag toss as a foursome again??

We eat on board tonight, as there is food to be eaten, and it will give the budget a break (although it doesn't really need a break.  Other than food and drinks, there are not a lot of expenses).  The evening is quite uneventful, with some pigs and euchre and early to bed.

Cheers
Julie and Dawson

Day 178, Tuesday December 17th - a great dinghy ride

Day 178 Tuesday December 17th - a great dinghy ride

Woke up to enjoy another beautiful day.  The day of coarse started off with a coffee then Dawson paddle over for a run.

Once everyone was up we headed out for a dinghy ride along the west coast of Elbow Cay to Tahiti Beach which is located at the very south of island.  The dinghy ride was good as we were heading with the wind behind us and Ross and Blake each had a line out fishing.  It was also getting a good view of the vacation homes built along the shore.  It was about a 45 minute ride.

We had been to the beach previously but the tide was even lower this time showing a substantial beach/sandbar.  On landing Ross found 3 coconuts and started juggling, and managed a fairly good performance.  We spent the next 1.5 hours walking the beach look at the shells, starfish and snails, building sandcastles and tossing around a football. Ross found a large Conch which was trying to get back in the water while he was holding it, make for an excellent photo opp.  The ride back to the boat was a bit wetter than the ride to the beach.  We cannot get on step with 4 adults.  We did not catch anything unfortunately.

Ross with Conch animal hanging out



Blake learning to juggle
 

We headed into Captain Jacks for Taco Tuesday where we joined Cool Running and Blue Moon.  Back to the boat for some King's cribbage.  Ross and Blake were very bored with this game so we then played some euchre and we whooped them 10 nothing.

Cheers
Julie and Dawson



Ross and Blake tossing football

Day 177, Monday, Dec. 16 - Day 1 with the boys

Day 177, Monday, Dec 16 - Day 1 with the boys

The day starts off like most days, a relaxing start with coffee in the cockpit, only now we have 4 people.  The day is partly cloudy with a bit of wind, the plan is to sail over to Hope Town in the afternoon.  It is about a 2.5 hour sail but will have to wait till late afternoon to have high tide to enter the harbour.

Blake getting ready for the snokel

In the morning, Julie and Dawson make the trip into the immigration office to see about having their visas extended as we were not able to do it at the airport.  The office is located about 1.5 miles from the water front in the new government building.  The building is quite stunning featuring a center courtyard. Although the building was nice we found no joy at immigration as we were informed that we can only apply for an extension within 7 days of our current visa expiring.  Oh well the walk was good exercise.  

Ross looking very smart in his wet suit

The next part of day has Julie, Ross and Blake head over to Mermaid reef to do some snorkeling while Dawson will stay on the boat to install the new water pump Ross brought.  Ross had hauled in some boating supplies from Canada.  The three snorkelers have a great time as mermaid reef is a protected area and has some stunning amount of aquatic life.  Dawson finishes the new pump installation as the crew arrives back from their snorkeling adventure.  The trip featured a very large spiny lobster sighting along with a large lion fish.

Ross demostrating his newly developed skills

Prior to upping anchor Ross puts on a juggling show for us.  This is a skill which Ross has been developing over the last year.  One of his house mates is an accomplished juggler and has taken Ross on as his apprentice.

Around 2 o'clock we pull the anchor up and head over to get fuel and water and then head out for the 8 mile trip to Hopetown.  We have a nice sail over and are tucked away on a mooring ball by 5 pm.  This time we take a ball close to the Hopetown Inn and Marina so we can access their Wi Fi from the boat.  We end up alongside Blue Moon; a boat we had first met up with at Green Turtle.  Linda from Blue Moon informs us it is bingo night over at Captain Jack's at 6 so we head over.  $40 later and no winnings we are back on the boat.  It was a fun time but would have been better if one of us had of won, the prize for a game was in the $150 range.

Back on the boat we have a meal of chicken and lobster, a couple of games of pigs and we are off to bed.
Cheers
Dawson and Julie

Day 176, Sunday December 15

Day 176, Sunday December 15

Dawson and Julie at the airport awaiting Ross and Blake 

Today is birthday day.  Dawson turns 51!

Dawson enjoys the first part of the day reading for the morning in the cockpit.  The weather is beautiful and Julie tackles the stainless.  With toothpaste and brush in hand, all the stainless is brushed to remove salt and the start of rust, then it gets rinsed and then a cleaner, protector, polisher is applied.  This takes quite a while and is backbreaking as some of the stainless is in awkward spots.

Once the boat is cleaned, we head off to the airport.  We are going early as we are walking the 5kms. and we are not sure how long it will take, and we also want to get our immigration papers extended.  We have only been granted a 90 day visit so had been told we need to go to immigration to request a longer time period.  We are not sure how long this will take so we head out at 2:00.  The walk to the airport goes quickly and we are there by 3:00.  There was nothing interesting along the way to cause any delay.  We find out where immigration is and they tell us we have to go to the immigration office in town which will be open on Monday.  Oh well, guess we should have enquired earlier.  It is now 3:30 and over an hour until the flight comes in.  We buy a cold drink and settle in for the wait.  Finally it is 4:40, the time of expected arrival, but the plane does not come.  After about 10 more minutes Julie checks the ipad and sure enough Ross has let us know that his plane is late and leaving at 5:10 (30 minutes after he was supposed to arrive).  A 5:10 plane gets him in about 6pm.  Unfortunate as now he will be a night flight versus a day flight and will not be able to see the beautiful views.  Oh well nothing to be done about it.  Finally 6 arrives and the plane arrives also.  We see Ross get off the plane, but no Blake.   Ross explains that Blake is 45 minutes behind him as there was a mix up on Blake's ticket and he had to buy a flight from another company as Sky Bahamas said he was not booked on the same flight as Ross even though he had a confirmation number and the paperwork to go with it.  We are a bit concerned but wait for 30 minutes.  Julie checks with the airline to be told there ahas been a couple hour delay.  We decide to head back to the boat with Ross to drop his luggage and get some food.  We had hoped to have a special birthday/welcome dinner however it was not meant to be.

Blake emails to inform us there have been even further delays.  The flight now is leaving at 9pm.  We ask him to text us once he is boarding the plane, as Ross and Dawson will head back to meet up with him  at the airport.  Finally we get word the plane is leaving and within the hour, Blake is on board the boat with stories of horrible lightening and winds that he thought were going to send the plane hurtling to the ground.

We are thrilled the young men have made it safely, but what a lot of unnecessary stress and expense.

Cheers
Julie and Dawson

Day 175, Saturday, December 14th

Day 175 Saturday Dec 14th, a neat snorkeling day

We once more are awoken to the wake of the Marsh Harbour ferry fleet as they pass through the harbour.  Nothing big planned for the day so it starts off slow with a coffee.

At 10 we head into town to do some more grocery shopped again in preparation for Ross and Blake's arrival.  Enroute to the store we stop at the Saturday Market hoping to get some fresh vegatables.  Unfortuately the fellow from the produce farm could not get his truck started so came via car with no fresh veggies, only some hot sauce.  We did have an interesting conversation with him about solar power as he was selling two panels.  In addition to his farm he sells and installs solar panels.  He has been in the game for 10 years having first started with wind generators and then moved over to solar.  He got out of the wind generators as they have too many moving parts that are effected by the salt air and when you add in the logestics of getting spares to the island it did not work out.

Julie getting ready to snorkel Mermaid Reef

After our groery tour we head back to the boat to store our new supplies and then head out to mermaid reef to do some snokeling.  We had tried this once before but have decided we missed the reef the first time as everyone we talk to say how wonderful it was.  It is about a 10 minute dinghy ride over.  We tie up to the same mooring ball we did last time.  However, this time we swim towards the beach, as we had been instructed.  Within 2 minutes we are on the reef and swarmed by 100 fish all different types.  It is like they come over to be fed, I did not think fish were smart enough to put humans and food together but they are definitely looking to eat.  With the swarm following we do 2 loops of the reef, it is very impressive.  The reef is protected so the fish are quite tame and there are a number of spiny lobsters to be seen.  We also notice that portions of the reef are man made, with some of the building blocks being round balls about 3 feet in diameter.  On some there are name plates over holes which has being cast in the balls.  Our guess is that it is a place when you can have your ashes inturned.

View of beach from Mermaid Reef

From the reef we motor back to the boat, Julie blogs for awhile and then we head back to Snappus to post.  We catch happy hour for a cheap drink, post, and we are back to the boat.  Dinner, coffee and a quick game and off to bed we go.

Cheers
Dawson and Julie

Day 174, Friday December 13th

Day 174, Friday December 13^th

Woke up to a beautiful day once again here in the exciting town of Marsh Harbour.  It had been fairly windy during the night but the harbour has protection from anything but a west wind, so no problems sleeping.  Julie did get up at low tide ~11:00 at night to check the depth under us, the depth sounder showed we had a almost a foot below so she came back to bed.  We are not too concerned about grounding out at anchor as we would just sit on the keel in the mud.

Marsh Harbour is not a great vacation spot but is a good town for doing errands so at the crack of 10 we are off.  1^st stop laundry at Harbour View Marina, here you can dinghy right up to the laundry room door and use the Snappas’s (the bar next door) internet to post some blogs and do some emails.  We haul the laundry back to boat and head back in to pick up some groceries.  Before groceries we stop at Mangoes Restaurant for lunch and to get their wi fi pass word.  We strike up a conversation with another couple at the table beside us and end up joining them for lunch.  They are cruisers as well and are from Halifax, Jeff and Debbie of Sea Sparrow.  They had just made the Abacos the week before.   Their arrival was overshadowed by the passing of their dog the day after they arrived.  They invite us over for sundowners and we both head off to do our errands. 

We head into town to do some grocery shopping and to pick up some varnish for the boat.  Marsh Harbour has two grocery stores one being more of a bulk store than the other; although they are both owned by the same company Maxwell.  We go to the bulk store and pick up some supplies; the high light of the visit is seeing a pallet full of honey buns.  This is something that Dawson would occasionally buy from a vending machine at the mine.  They were only good as long as the lard was still warm from being nuked.  Anyway it was the 1^st time we had seen this many honey buns in this abundance.

A gross of honey buns, or is that gross honey buns?

We are back to the boat around 3, read a bit and then head over to Sea Sparrow for sundowners.  We have a Dark and Stormy each along with a tour of Debbie and Jeff’s Boat a Leopard 40 which is a Catamaran.  We are both very impressed with the room afforded by a catamaran and agree that it is the perfect boat for the sea of Abaco.   We head into Snappas Bar and Grill for Happy Hour, with the added benefit of live music as it is the bar’s owner’s birthday.  We have a couple of beers, listen to an acoustic singer/guitarist followed by a sax player.  Then we get word there are complimentary appetizers.   You can’t get much better than that.  Jeff stated that if only we could pick up free wireless on boat we would be in Cruisers Nirvana.  By 7 we are heading back to the boat, a coffee and a quick game of cribbage and off to bed.

Cheers

Dawson and Julie

Day 173, Thursday December 12th - good run on the beach

Day 173, Thursday December 12th

Today we are heading to Marsh Harbour as some high winds are expected tonight and Ross flies in on Sunday so we want to ensure we are in Marsh Harbour to greet him.  High tide is not until 15:00 so we decide to leave around noon as low tide which is at 10:00 is not the right time to be pulling out.  There is no visit from the dolphin today, but there are a couple hundred minnows that are trying to avoid being a larger fish’s breakfast.  We noticed them because suddenly they all went airborne only about an inch out of the water, but sufficiently that the water surface looked like hundreds of raindrops in a 6 foot by 6 foot area, and sure enough we watched for awhile and the minnows were being chased every couple of minutes by about a 5 inch fish that was hanging out under our boat.  It was neat to see. 

Dawson doing a cool run

We head to the seashore and Dawson goes for a run, while Julie goes for a speed walk.  The sand is fairly easy to walk in as near the waves the sand is compacted.  It is already very hot out as there is but a breath of wind.  After our exercise we head over to say good bye to Bill and Judy and drop off a novel to them and then hop in the pool for a quick swim.  The pool is very refreshing.  Julie finds a crab on the way that is quite colourful.

The cool down

Crab in shell that was on walkway

After the swim we are off to the boat to start preparing for departure.  This is about a 30 minute routine of hoisting the outboard motor, then the dinghy, then securing everything, closing all the portholes, ensuring all the lines are free and clear, then hoisting the anchor.  The winds are still light but scheduled to pick up by 13:00.  We motorsail for most of the way, for the main reason we have to charge the batteries.  For the last two days there has been no wind in at Treasure Cay, which means we get 0 power from the wind generator, so it is time to top the batteries up.  It is only about 15 miles to Marsh Harbour so we will get into port well before nightfall.  We drop the hook around 15:00 hours.  The winds have already picked up and are blowing about 12 knots out of the north, just as forecasted.  It was neat to watch the Sea of Abaco as the wind picked up, when we left Treasure Cay it was quite calm but by the time we made Marsh Harbour there were white caps on the sea.  It is very shallow in the Sea of Abaco, 8 to 14 feet, so it does not take long for a wave to build up.

Lots of boats in Marsh Harbour

It is a little busier in Marsh Harbour than our other visits here.  The boats from Florida have started to make it over here in numbers now.  Previously there were only 6 to 10 boats at anchor now we can count 28 boats, with a number being Canadian.

We spend the afternoon on the boat blogging and reading, a nice dinner, a quick game of King’s Cribbage and off to bed we go.

Cheers

Julie and Dawson

Day 172, Wednesday December 11th - Another Beautiful Day

Day 172, Wednesday December 11^th

Once again we awake to a beautiful day.  Very little wind so it will be warm today.  First thing we do is check the progress of our newly planted herb garden.  Kevin had given Dawson this as a Christmas gift and we finally got around to planting it in Hope Town.  We have 3 herbs under cultivation: Basil, Coriander, Oregano, we are quite looking forward to our first harvest.  Today we have our 1st sprouts in the Basil pot.

The 1st sprout

  After breakfast we decide to start the day with a kayak loop through the canals.  A dolphin accompanied us for a while.  It surfaced right in front of Julie’s kayak after going underneath her and freaking her out a bit as she saw it through the viewing window in the bottom of the kayak.

Dolphin leading the way

An excellent purchase

Ray en route to the salt water lake

Our afternoon excursion on a rising tide was to take the dinghy up a creek into a saltwater lake.  We turned the motor off and just drifted all the while standing in the dinghy looking for creatures.  Within the first couple minutes we saw a pair of Manta Rays.  They were huge and flying submerged across the front of the dinghy.  We also saw a couple turtles and some large fish which we think were barracuda.  The barracuda seemed to be following us and keeping an eye on our activities.  A few birds also squawked at us.  They sounded huge, but I don’t think they were.  We giggled that they were monkeys.

After the dinghy ride we went ocean side for a short walk and swim.  The benefits of the Abacos is access to safe havens, oceanfront, and seaside.  Treasure Cay has a beautiful shoreline along the sea of Abacos.

Julian and Loraine from Cool Runnings joined us for dinner on our boat.  It was not a late night(10 oclock) but once again a very enjoyable evening.

 

Cheers

Julie and Dawson

Day 171, Tuesday December 10th

Day 171, Tuesday December 10^th

Last night was the quietest, windless night we have had.  We could hear the krill clicking away at our hull.  We started experiencing this noise once we hit salt water.  We lay in bed and it sounds like a crackling fire.  At first we wondered if there was an electrical problem, but quickly learned it was water life eating away at anything on the hull.  Last night was the loudest.  Someone told us it was a sign of healthy water.  With no wind it was a bit hot, and we were not generating any power which is a drag. 

We wandered into the office in the morning as we are anchored in a man made channel and the resort that owns the channel charges for anchoring.  It is only $10 and that entitles us to use their showers, pool and internet so not a big deal at all.  There is a dolphin wandering around surfacing in and about the boats which is neat to see.  We are also told there are large tarponds in the area which are fish as large as people.   We did not see any of those today, but will look for them tomorrow.

Bill, Bill, Julie, Judy and Dawson at Treasure Cay

We do a traditional beach hike which is gorgeous, find a bakery and share a delicious cinnamon bun, and then head up to the pool to read and relax.  We meet up with the Chapell’s which are on the boat Charbonneau and we had met them in Marsh Harbour and they had sailed out of Hampton with the Salty dawg rally also.  We arranged to meet later for dinner.

Before heading to dinner, we  bump into Cool Running, the world is very small here.

Dinner is great, lobster and fish for us.  After dinner we head back to the boat for a coffee and game of Kings Cribbage.  We are playing in the cockpit and it is difficult to concentrate as we constantly hear splashes etc.  Finally Julie gets the spotlight to see if we can find the culprit making the noise.  We see some movement, but not a good view.  We are confident it is the dolphin though as it is so close we can hear it breathing as it surfaces every minute or so.  We toss a few cookie crumbs into the water and watch small sharklike fish surfacing for treats.  They don’t like it when we shine the spotlight on them, they quickly seek the shadows of the boat.

Cheers

Julie and Dawson

Day 170, Monday December 9th

Day 170, Monday December 9^th

Today is moving day.  We need to time our departure around high tide so we don’t ground in the channel.  We have a couple hours before departure so Dawson goes for a run, while Julie hits the market and a shop she had seen a book in that she wanted to buy.  We meet up for a coffee so we can get some internet to finalize Ross’s arrival to the Abacos in a week.  By coincidence we meet up with our friends at the coffee shop.  It is such a small world we are revolving in.  3 of the 4 boats are leaving today.  All of us are going to different spots, but will cross paths again over the next couple of weeks.  We could not decide initially where to go, but since the wind is from the south, we headed north.  Treasure Cay is one of the spots we had not gone to yet, so became our destination.  Our plans are pretty flexible and have to be due to weather and tides etc. 

The sail was beautiful.  Full sun, 24 degrees out, with about a 13 knot wind behind us.  We travelled at about 5 knots and made our destination in little over 3 hours.  The tide was going out and still had about 2 more feet to drop luckily as it is only about 6 foot clearance to get in the channel.

We spent a quiet evening at anchor.  We will explore the shore tomorrow.

Cheers

Julie and Dawson

Day 169, Sunday December 8^th

Lunch waterside

Another day in Hopetown.  It is just too beautiful here, and there are fireworks tonight so we might as well stay.  We head over to the famous lighthouse to take in the views.  There are 120 steps to the top.  The lighthouse was built in the 18 hundreds and is one of the last lighthouses still burning kerosene versus an electric light.  The stories say that original inhabitants made their money through salvaging so intentionally would lead ships on to the reefs in order to reap the benefits of salvaging the wreks.  When the lighthouse was being built there was lots of controversy because it was threatening their liviehood and so the inhabitants actually vandalized the building of the lighthouse in order to prevent this fabulous aid to navigation from being built.

Perspective shot inside the lighthouse

View of bay from lighthouse.  We are one of those boats.

The afternoon had us kayaking up a creek.  Not much to see, but some good exercise.  We are very happy with our inflatable kayaks.  They steer well, are easy to get in and out of and very lightweight for handling.  We kayak over to the resort to sit poolside again and pay some bills on the internet.

John and Rosemary celebrating 23rd anniversary

By 4:30 we need to kick into gear as we are expected back at John and Rosemary’s for drinks at 5 and have a full agenda after.  John and Rosemary are celebrating their 23^rd wedding anniversary.  After drinks we head over to Loraine and Julian’s for dinner, and then off to the last evening of the music festival which is happening at the marina we are mooring with.  This 3^rd night of music is not as good as it is the same artists with the same tunes and stories,and they are not mixing it up at all.  Each artist only does about 4 songs each a night so you would think they would play different songs and make different jokes, however they fail to realize that 90 percent of the crowd is the same as the night before.  Oh well, it is still fun.  As soon as the music is over the fireworks set off about 100 feet from our boat.  Luckily the wind is going away from us so no worries of a burning boat.  A great finale to a lovely evening.

Cheers

Julie and Dawson